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Today’s easy dessert recipe post is a chocolate trifle recipe that you can quickly make with little effort, as always. Feel free to experiment by swapping the ingredients like heath bars or brownies with anything else you may desire. You could even buy ready made brownies…

In a large bowl, combine pudding mix, water and sweetened condensed milk. Mix until smooth, then fold in 8 ounces whipped topping until no streaks remain.

In a trifle bowl or glass serving dish, place half of the brownies, half of the pudding mixture and half of the 12 ounce container of whipped topping. Repeat layers. Sprinkle heath crumbles onto top layer for garnish. Refrigerate 8 hours before serving.

Gelatin is derived from partially hydrolyzed collagen, which is a protein that is found in animal skin and bones. It is used as a thickening agent in many different desserts that are normally served cold. These desserts include jellies, mousses, and other such popular delights. This article gives you the basic tips and techniques that you will need to know when using gelatin in making gelatin desserts.

1. Types of Gelatin

Gelatin can commonly be found in two forms, namely powdered or granulated gelatin and sheet or leaf gelatin. Both of these different forms of gelatins can be substituted into each other in a recipe, weight for weight. Granulated gelatin, as the name mentions, is found in the form of small granules. Sheet gelatin is in the form of thin, transparent gelatin sheets. Sheet gelatin is more popularly used than granulated gelatin, though it is the more expensive.2. Preparing the Gelatin

Before using any type of gelatin, it is necessary to let them sit in cold water first for several minutes. This is in order to let the gelatin molecules be separated so that they do not clump together later on when placed in a warm liquid, and this process is commonly called the ‘blooming’.

When using granulated gelatin, let it sit in about four time its weight in cold water. After it has bloomed, which may take five or ten minutes, you will notice the water will have been absorbed and the granulated gelatin will appear to have expanded in size. Then you need to melt the gelatin over a double boiler. It is important to use a double boiler, as you should never bring it to a boil or the gelatin will scorch.

When using sheet gelatin, separate the sheets and let them sit in a large bowl of cold water. They may take longer to bloom, so make sure you soak them in the cold water until they are very soft. After they have bloomed, squeeze out all the water, and then place them into your warm liquid. It is not necessary to melt the sheet gelatin beforehand like you do for the granulated gelatin, as the sheet gelatin melts much more easily.

3. Precautions

It is important to make sure all your molds and other equipment are prepared beforehand. You don’t want your mixture to set while you are busy getting out the mold and pans.

As mentioned before, gelatin is derived from protein. It is important that you be careful of using certain fruits that contain the enzyme protease, which is a protein cutting enzyme. If your gelatin comes into contact with this enzyme, its molecules will be cut down until they are far too small for your mixture to set. Fruits which contain this enzyme include the kiwi, pineapple, papaya, pawpaw, and figs. When using such fruits, it is important that they are cooked or canned, as this will cause the enzymes to be denatured and thus rendered inactive.

Conclusion

These are the basic tips and techniques which you need to know when making your gelatin dessert. If you follow these rules, then you’ll have no problem whipping up a jelly delight.

Running into the problem of seized chocolate is something that happens quite often in the kitchen. Especially if you are rushing to prepare a delicious chocolate dessert for your guests, and do not take enough care to handle your chocolate well. This article explains a bit about the seizing process, and how you can bring your seized chocolate back to life.

Why chocolate seizing happens

Apart from the cocoa butter that is known to be found in chocolate, other dry ingredients such as cocoa solids and sugar are also present. When melted chocolate is exposed to water, these dry ingredients start to clump to each other, resulting in your chocolate becoming seized. It doesn’t take a lot of water to cause seizing to occur. Just a tiny drop will be enough to cause your chocolate to start clumping together in grainy masses. Even water in the form of steam shouldn’t go near your chocolate.

Seizing isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes the seizing process can be taken advantage of to reduce the fluidity of the chocolate, such as when you need to do some piping with the chocolate. But for most purposes, the occurrence of seizing is a bad thing. So how can you cure your chocolate of this calamity and bring it back?

Bringing back seized chocolate

First, take your chocolate off the heat. In order to bring back seized chocolate, you will need some fat in the form of vegetable oil or shortening, cocoa butter, or clarified butter. Add slowly in small amounts and keep stirring until your chocolate eventually comes back to normal… Well, almost normal. After this process your chocolate will probably be too soft for dipping, but you can still use it for other baking purposes that require melted chocolate.

Prevention is better than cure

In order to avoid the troubles that come with seized chocolate, it is best to follow some basic measures so that you can prevent it from happening in the first place. Before melting your chocolate, ensure that all your utensils and equipment are as dry as can be. Avoid using wooden spoons or other wooden tools, as their porous nature means that they are likely to retain moisture between their tiny cracks.

When melting chocolate, it is important that you never cover it with a lid, as moisture can condense on the lid and drop into your chocolate. When using a double boiler, be especially careful that the water in the lower container does not come into contact with the upper container that is holding your chocolate. When taking off the container holding the chocolate, always remember to wipe off the moisture underneath it using a cloth. If you do not do this, you run the risk of water getting into your chocolate.

If you plan to use a microwave instead of a double-boiler, then be careful that the container you use for microwaving it in does not retain a lot of heat after few minutes of microwaving. If not, it could be too hot for the chocolate. Set the heating level on your microwave to low, and occasionally stop to stir in between.

This article contains several tips for preparing diet-friendly desserts while still satisfying your sweet tooth. After reading this, you will be able to cut the calories you consume by half or even more.

1. Choosing your dessert recipe

A good way to start off with getting a diet-friendly dessert on the table is to choose a dessert recipe that is geared toward health or diet conscious people. This saves you the trouble of having to substitute ingredients here and there if you are not too confident about doing so. The creators of such recipes have already taken the trouble and consideration of matters related to diet while trying their best to keep the dessert recipe delicious.

Look for specific dessert recipes that are categorized as being low-fat, sugar-free, guilt-free, light, or healthy. You might also want to consider looking for dessert recipes that are for diabetics, people with milk allergies, and so on.

Additionally, recent studies have shown that as cookbook editions evolve, the number of calories for the recipes in the book increase by almost half. This may be attributed to adjustments for the current trends in consuming extra sweet, extra heavy, unhealthy foods. In general, when looking for a dessert recipe, go for older edition cookbooks, as they will be much better for your weight.

2. Substituting ingredients

Where possible, use low-fat or fat-free ingredients. When not possible, in most recipes, there are several ingredients which can easily be substituted with more diet-friendly alternatives. These commonly include butter, sugar, egg yolks, milk, flour, and several others. When in doubt, replace only half of the ingredient amount.

Yogurt can easily be used as a substitute for high-fat baking ingredients such as butter, shortening, oil, sour cream, or even milk. Of course, you will want to choose low-fat or fat-free varieties of yogurt.

White flour can often be substituted with whole-wheat flour for a recipe with fewer calories, much more fiber, and you also get more calcium and protein too. It is probably best to only replace half of the white flour with the whole-wheat flour if you are unsure whether the recipe will turn out right.

Sugar can often be replaced with sugar substitutes such as Splenda or stevia for sweetening foods. I generally prefer stevia, as it is a natural herb which has shown very promising results in medicinal use throughout history. In comparison, Splenda is an artificially developed sweetener which has shown remote possibilities of causing health side-effects.

Search for stevia or Splenda dessert recipes to find recipes specifically made for these sugar substitutes. Another popular alternative to sugar is using fruit purees. If you do need to use sugar, then it is much better to use natural cane sugar, then the refined and processed white sugar.

Egg yolks can easily be replaced with egg whites in most recipes. One egg yolk can be substituted with two egg whites.

When making chocolate dessert, it is better to use dark chocolate in place of the other types of chocolate. Other than the fact that dark chocolate contains antioxidants, it contains less sugar than milk and white chocolate, giving it that rich and intense taste that also fills you up quicker.

3. Additional ingredients

Most of the time we think that the best way to make our desserts more diet-friendly is to cut down on everything. Well, that does help, but you can improve your desserts by adding certain ingredients too.

It is common for people to add oats to their recipes to increase the amount of fiber present. Fiber in a recipe helps to cleanse fat from the body and also prevents constipation. For best results, look for recipes that already contain ingredients with lots of fiber, such as oatmeal cookies.

Many people also enjoy adding ground flaxseed to their recipes to improve the nutritional benefits of their meal.4. Size of the recipe

Making smaller portions of a dessert can help you to eat less and feel full sooner. In general, just a few mouthfuls of the sweets should be enough to satisfy your sweet tooth. So, divide your recipe in half, make your portions small, and you will lower the chances of over-eating. Eat a small portion, satisfy your sweet tooth, and that’s enough.

Remember that moderation is the key. Eating one small piece of chocolate dessert won’t make you fat. It’s eating twenty small pieces of chocolate dessert that will make you fat.

5. Use lots of fruits

In the old days, people used to eat fresh, stewed, or cooked fruits for dessert, as they did not have the luxury of sweet, delicious pastries that we have today. Just having fruits for dessert, prepared in various ways, can be enough to satisfy you. The natural sugars present in fruits are good for satisfying a sweet tooth and they are healthy for your body too.

Prepare fruits in different ways, and use them extensively as toppings on cakes and pies instead of whipped cream or icing. Serve fresh fruit with low fat yogurt for an amazingly light dessert experience. You can serve fruit juices for dessert too, or even freeze them into popsicles.